Accompanying Himself

Hubby's guitar playing has become somewhat schizophrenic lately. I should hasten to explain. No, Hubby doesn't have a mental illness, he has a loop pedal. Before being around my guitar-obsessed husband I didn't know such things as loop pedals existed. I knew about amps, of course, and I knew about distortion pedals.

Not too long ago, as faithful blog readers know, Hubby got a hefty bonus at work and we decided jointly that he would use it entirely on "toys". He got a burr grinder for excellent coffee-making and he also got a loop pedal. This device does much more than looping but last night it was the looping that I heard more than anything else.

We're gearing up to play at church again this Sunday. We decided we would do a combination Irish/hymn set and for the final hymn we would do "Lamb of God". This little tune in 3/4 time, written, incidentally, by Twila Paris, has a very Celtic feel and sounds great on the tin whistle. Hubby downstairs in his Tower last night played through the accompaniment for "Lamb of God" but felt unsatisfied with the blandness of not having any melody. Enter the loop pedal.

The loop pedal records a riff and then plays in a repeating loop so you can in essence play along with yourself. So my enterprising husband recorded the melody and set it in a loop then worked on his accompaniment to go with it. (I was in the bathtub at the time, washing off trail dust, in case you were wondering why I was not down there with my whistle.) I'm pretty sure He recorded the chords later then improvised melody over it. For a long time, the playful sounds of "Lamb of God" wafted up the stairs, then a shining-eyed hubby bounded up. I think his idea of heaven is a secluded room filled with guitars and every piece of sound-altering electronic equipment in existence. For now, he makes do with my Washburn cutaway and his new loop pedal. I love to see the joy in his face when he emerges from the basement after several hours of practicing, for a man who spends most of his day working with computers then comes home and helps me with two demanding toddlers, it's good to see him refresh and recharge with his music.

Here's a pic to bring back some memories. October 2005.